Angoulême 2026 – day 4: Changing the water of the flowers, Rudi Rosenberg, the duo Valérie Donzelli-Jalil Lespert and Gérard Lanvin

Every day, a look back at the highlights of the 19th edition of the French-speaking film festival

Film of the day: Change the flower water by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

It was with Ten percent which will close it on Saturday, the event of this festival. The premiere of the adaptation of one of the bestsellers of 2018 by Valérie Perrin, by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The story of Violette, a cemetery guard whose daily life is punctuated by the secrets of passing people, including a police officer who, intrigued by the mysterious disappearance of her husband, decides to lead the investigation. The rooms of the CGR had obviously been full for a long time. Even if the weather almost spoiled the party, the storms having caused a general breakdown at the Gare Montparnasse which was on the verge of leaving Jeunet and his team in Paris… But the Gods of cinema acted and the filmmaker, Leïla Bekhti, Melvil Poupaud and Valérie Perrin were able to come and meet their very first audience.

So what is this new Jeunet like? Totally Jeunet-esque. After leaving the road Big bug, iHere he returns to his fundamentals. Change the flower water dialog thus on the screen with Amélie Poulainin its colors, its flashbacks, its principles of staging… Jeunet even thought of entrusting the role of Violette to… Audrey Tautou!

The director plays the melodrama card to the fullest and the audience present seems to have bought into it. Enough to imagine both a hit in theaters and the return in force of critics who have always been reluctant to his universe who will find there something to persist in. Lovers of the book and its twists and turns on Violette’s tragic past in her relationship and her family should find themselves in it. And Leïla Bekhti’s interpretation has a lot to do with it.

She confirms after My mother, God and Sylvie Vartanher ability to embody popular heroines, to embrace melodrama with incredible accuracy, fluidity and power without falling into sentimentality or overpowering her character. It’s a shame, however, that Jeunet was unable to keep things as short, dense and to the point as the fantastic theatrical adaptation by Salomé Lelouch and Mikaël Chirinian in 2021. The space given to the investigation as such takes up too much space compared to the explosions it causes. Twenty minutes could have been largely cut from these 2h18. But none of this should prevent the film from filling French theaters after those in Angoulême!

Released December 9

Director of the day: Rudi Rosenberg for A few words of love

11 almost full rooms in the middle of the afternoon, or nearly 1,800 spectators. A few words of love also knew how to attract crowds. And it’s only justice for this magnificent second feature film by Rudi Rosenberg, eleven years later The Newa chronicle about adolescence who had not met with the success he deserved. He takes us here to Sarcelles in 1995 in the footsteps of a kid, haunted by the absence of her father, whom she never knew and will seek to meet at all costs. A desire that will transform over the years into an obsession, despite the reluctance of her mother who fears that she will face hurtful disappointments. Rosenberg definitely has a crazy talent for talking about youth but also for spotting and directing non-professional actors who constitute 99% of his cast, with the notable exception of Hafsia Herzi, the wonderful interpreter of this single mother. But above all, throughout this poignant story, he constantly knows how to distill mischievous humor which reinforces the emotional power of his story while preventing it from becoming tearful. A treat from start to finish.

Released October 28

The duo of the day: Valérie Donzelli and Jalil Lespert in The Days After

Stéphanie Pillonca is an all-terrain filmmaker who works in documentaries (It’s you I was waiting for) to fiction (Learn to love yourself), from the big to the small screen with disconcerting fluidity. Because everything starts from the same thing: a sensitivity to the world around him which allows him to talk about societal subjects (adoption, disability, etc.) without getting stuck in the film’s subject.

In The Days Afterit’s about love. Its heroine, fifty-year-old, married and mother, returns alone to her birthplace to empty it. The opportunity to reunite with people who have been lost for years, including his childhood sweetheart. The very first who, even if she resists it, could well be the next and vector of a possible reinvention even if nothing seems to be missing in her personal life, starting with a loving and loved husband.

Stéphanie Pillonca, don’t finesse. His gesture is clear, to the first degree in the noblest sense of the term. The one that makes cynics and sneers of all kinds bristle. And which is found in the complicit and skin-deep interpretation of the duo she brought together in front of her camera: Valérie Donzelli and Jalil Lespert (who co-signed the screenplay). A unique duo on the big screen as comfortable in the expression of these silences which say more than a thousand words as in the joyful emergence of a passion suddenly overturning all forms of guilt. The crest line is tenuous. They walk around with disconcerting ease

Video of the day: Gérard Lanvin, performer of Redemptions

Presented in competition, Redemptions by Luc Picard obeys the rule of the famous butterfly effect: the return to the field of a Quebec hitman causes collateral damage on the other side of the planet, on a Parisian film set. Gérard Lanvin plays an experienced actor taking a beginner (Henri Picard) under his wing. A hand-crafted role in which he savors each scene with contagious relish. The opportunity to talk with him about transmission and those who, in his early days, were able to extend their hand to him.

Released in November